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THE CIVIL-SERVICE AND CUBAN QUESTIONS. 



REMARKS 



HON. JERRY SIMPSON, 



OF KANSAS, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



January 11 and 20, 1898. 



WASHINGTON. 
1898. 



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4j • »»v The Civil Service. 
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^•^ SPEECH 



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01^. JERRY SIMPSON, 

OP KAISTSAS, 

N THE House of Eepkesentatiyes, 

Tuesday, January 11, 1898. 



The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and 
havinsf iindei- consideration the hill (H. R. 4751) making appropriations for 
the lej^islative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, and for other purposes- 
Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas said: 

Mr. Chairman : We are about to witness the closing scenes of this 
farce that has been continned before this audience for six days. I 
have been making an earnest endeavor to find ont what all this 
disL ussion was about, anyway. I am informed that under the rules 
it will be impossible to get a vote on this measure now pending either 
to amend or repeal the law that these gentlemen complain of, and 
so it strikes me that there must have been some other motive or 
motives behind those that permitted this discussion to go on. I 
think, perhaps, in the first place, that there was a fear on the 
part of the political bosses who are managing affairs and con- 
trolling the Government now that if Congress were left to itself 
it might appropriate too much money and there might be a deficit, 
and they thought that it was safer for Congress to talk than to 
expend money. 

Mr. QUIGrGr. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a ques- 
tion? 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I only have five minutes. 

Mr. QUIGG. Your time will be extended. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. If you will get the extension, I will 
answer the question after I get the extension. [Laughter.] 

Now, Mr. Chairman, there is another reason. There is a great 
army of office seekers knocking at the door for admission. Their 
Representatives here, to whom they look to secure office for them, 
miist satisfy them in some way. So these speeches are made 
solely and entirely for home consumption and nothing else. 
[Laughter.] We witnessed here at the first opening of Congress 
after the holidays the very sudden appearance of the gentleman 
from Oliio [Mr. Grosvenor] upon the scene. The track was 
cleared, everything was side-tracked, and he was given the right 
of waj^ and two hours to make a speech to use in the interest of 
Mr. Hanna out in Ohio. 

A Member. And he won out. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. That was the understanding. The 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] no doubt told the boys 

3936 3 



who worked in the Hanna trenches that this law was to be re- 
pealed and the door would be opened to them; and now, after the 
vote has been taken, and Mr. Hanna's election is secure, I suppose 
we will be permitted to take a vote this evening. [Laughter. J I 
heard my honorable friend from New Hampshire, Mr. Salivator 
or Mr. SuLLOWAY [laughter], yesterday make the charge that 
everyone who stood for civil-service reform was either a coward 
or a' demagogue. Now, I have been looking into this matter a 
little, and I have taken up the case. The gentleman from Ohio 
[Mr. Grosvenor] is a very eminent example to us as to who is 
the coward and who is the demagogue. 

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] here in this^,. 
House claimed the right to differ from his party and his party's • 
platform when a great principle is at stake. Then he goes out to A 
Ohio and denounces everybody, who makes an attempt to jwstif s^ 
themselves when they differ from their party platform. YdictJ|^ 
it makes a dift'erence where you are at. Now, we have this e:sam.'^;" 
pie of demagogism pure and simple; so if there are deaiagogues— '' ' 
there are some— on the other side of this question, certainly they 
have a monopoly or a majority on that question. 

Now, I am for civil-service reform; for a more stringent law 
even than we have. I do not believe it would be safe in this coun- 
try of ours to turn political parties loose with the reward of office 
as a bribe for political following. Should you do that, gentlemen, 
all principles at stake and that are advocated by parties will be 
obscured and the ever-increasing horde of pie hunters, who often 
hold the balance of power in the country, would go over to the 
party that would offer the greatest rewards of the spoils of office. 

The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Now I should like to have five min- 
utes to answer the gentleman's question. [Laughter.] 

Mr. LACEY. I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman 
have five minutes more, on condition that he will read the Popu- 
list platform on this question. That was the condition he imposed 
the other day. [Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Unanimous consent is asked that the time 
of the gentleman be extended five minutes. Is there objection? 

Mr. LIVINGSTON. 1 have time, and I yield the gentleman ten 
minutes. 

The CHAIRMAN. Unanimous consent is asked that the gentle- 
man's time be extended five minutes. Is there objection? [After 
a pause.] The Chair hears none. 

Mr. LACEY. I will ask the gentleman to allow me to read the 
Populist platform for him. 

Mr. QUIGG. I want to ask the gentleman whether I under- 
stood him to say that we had not power to get any vote in regard 
to any proposition with reference to the civil service? 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I have been informed that under 
the rules of this House, so far as this bill under consideration is 
concerned, no amendment can be offered, and the only vote to be 
taken will be on the passage of the bill. 

Mr. QUIGG. But did the gentleman mean to imply thereby 
that when this bill is voted and passed upon that we can not have 
a separate vote on this law? 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Oh, no: i presume that the gentle- 
men have the courage of their convictions, and will bring in a 
separate bill; and if they can get recognition from the Speaker, 
or a rule from the Committee on Rules, they could do so; but it 
2926 



entirely rests with the Speaker, as he is the whole thing and runs 
the House. [Lajighter and applause on the Democratic side.] 
Therefore I take it for granted that no such permission would 
be given, and these speeches are all for buncombe, to enable the 
boys to send them out to satisfy the voters at home. 

Mr. QUIGG. But will the gentleman undertake to speak for 
the Speaker without having consulted the Speaker? 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Yes, sir; as the Speaker never con- 
sults me. [Great laughter and applause.] 

Mr. Chairman, I was about to explain my position on this civil- 
service law. The only fault I have to find with it is that those 
who are in power do not enforce the law. 

It is well understood by gentlemen, and it is no use to try to 
fool one another. On the contrary, it is well known that there is 
no difficulty in getting people orit under the civil-service law. 
You can get the^n out as freely as you want, but the trouble is 
you can not get the right fellow' in. There is the difficulty. You 
can not get the man in that stood by you in the election; you can 
not reward and pay your political debts by putting a fellow in 
that fought for you in the campaign; you can not reward him at 
the Government's expense, and hence the objections of these gen- 
tlemen to the civil-service law. Now, if you can remove that, and 
the President in some way can remove that objection, you will 
hear no more fault found with the civil-service law. 

Here is a case that came under my observation. Henry A. Rob- 
inson, chief of a division in the Agricultural Department, was a 
Bryan man. He would not bow his knee to the golden god, and 
he even went so far as to go home before the election and made 
some speeches for Mr. Bryan, and on election day voted for him. 
He was given prompt notice, as soon as my Republican friends 
went into office, that his resignation would be accepted on any 
day. He thought they meant what they said, and he resigned. 
On the other hand, a gentleman in the same division, a goldbug 
Democrat, who wi'ote the celebrated bulletin or pamphlet No. 3, 
of which the Republicans distributed 40,000 copies and consid- 
ered the best argument on the gold side of the question that had 
been made, he held his place, and is getting $1,800 a year. 

A Member. He is worth it. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. He is worth more than that to the 
goldbugs, no doubt. 

If we were in the habit of seriously considering the bearing of 
all that happens in the administration of national affairs, it would 
be very difficult to secure from even the majority in this House _a 
vote for an appropriation of money for the continuance of what is 
known as the Civil Service Commission. 1 am not a spoilsman, 
nor do I believe we shall ever return to the old system of spoils- 
mongering; but it is within the knowledge of every observing 
member of Congress that the present Administration has more 
than made a farce of the civil-service rules. There is not a Depart- 
ment under the Government where removals have not been made 
for merely partisan purposes, and in many cases without even the 
semblance of regard for the law. 

It is an open secret that the political fortunes of a statesman 
seeking an election to a high position has caused the profligate 
use of Federal officials for the purpose of advancing the failing 
fortunes of a Presidential favorite. Nor are we forced to rely for 
information upon this topic on the statements of political oppo- 
nents of the aspiring statesman. We hear the complaint from 

2926 



men of his own party and standing with him for the great party 
of high taxes and low morality. 

But there is little in all this that is worthy of comment. It has 
been so constantly the practice of Republicans in offi.ce as to occa- 
sion slight attention, even when following the bold declarations 
of the platform and of the Chief Executive's official utterance. 
He would be a very simple citizen who would look for the ob- 
servance of the civil-service rules from a Republican Administra- 
tion after the experience of the past. But in another direction 
we see evidences of progress toward an absolute despotism which 
should awaken every citizen to a sense of impending danger. 

For years we have been accustomed so continually to the cry of 
" anarchy " during the excitements of political campaigns that 
we have ceased to note the progress being made in this direction 
by those who have raised this new cry after the old slogan of the 
bloody shirt lost its force. Nor do I expect that any words of 
m.ine will stem the tide or give pause to the men who act upon the 
assumption that they believe this country should be ruled by the 
elect and that they are the elect. And yet I want to utter this 
warning that it may stand of record when the people awake to the 
fact that their liberties have been destroj'ed while they slept. 
And I ask of the defenders of this Administration that they take 
note of the statements herein made and give such answer as may 
be possible. 

We have in office a Secretary of the Treasury. That he is in 
some way accounted slightly better than his party is evidenced 
not only merely by the fact that he is hated by all the old wheel- 
horses of Republicanism, but also by that other fact that no one 
can answer for his partisanship nor foretell how long it will be 
before he will once more give vent to his feelings in the denuncia- 
tion of ''the hideous specter of the McKinley bill," nnder which 
terms he not long ago welcomed a gathered host in his chosen city. 
And, besides being so much better than his present party, Mr. 
Gage stands preeminently as the champion of the public faith and 
of " sound money." He is the banker whose wonderful wisdom 
is to enlighten the world upon finance. He is the great man from 
out of the West who has lived in so high an atmosphere that the 
odor of anarchy is not in his garments. Now, I want to call at- 
tention to a single action of this prodigy of statesmanship and ask 
if it be in accordance with law. 

It is perfectly well understood that the United States Treasury 
is as full of barnacles as an old hulk that has never been scraped. 
It is an open secret that there are many incompetents employed 
in that Department, filling places that were "made for them " over 
twenty-five years ago, and that their services are not worth the 
ink with which their names are signed with wonderful regularity 
on the pay rolls. It is also well known that many employees of 
that Department have outlived all ability to render any service 
of value to the Government. As to that, we have the authority of 
the Secretary himself and of his subordinates, who have accepted 
the hints given as to a policy to be piirsued regarding these bar- 
nacles. 

It is openly stated by the Secretary that he proposes to establish 
a rule under which these useless employees may still hold their 
places and receive their pay regularly without doing the work re- 
quired of them in the past and also without observing the plain 
commands of the statute. The Seci'etary decides that the pay of 
these persons shall be slightly reduced and then that they may be 

2926 



in some manner excused from a strict performance of their duties. 
As it is stated by one of the Treasury officials in an authorized 
interview, '■ It will be perfectly understood that if these old and 
superannuated persons fail of arriving at their stations at the re- 
quired hour, the timekeepers will make no note of it, and their pay 
will go on as ever. 

Of course the Secretary understands that we have no private 
pension system in this country, and that his action is clearly con- 
trary to law. He knows there is a special and very stringent 
statute goveriiing the matter of which he makes such light ana 
that he has no legal right to establish a private pension system 
contrary to law. He knows that the law sftys what shall be the 
hours of labor for G'overnment employees and that it contains no 
provision under which any Department officer can make exceptions. 
But this knowledge has no terrors nor deterrent force for the 
great banker installed as the Secretary of the Treasury. He sees 
a chance to make a rule that is pleasing in his sight, and pays as 
little attention to the existing law as if he had always been a Re- 
publican and had never denounced McKinleyism and all its works. 
And in this the Secretary is consistent with the record of most 
statesmen who have budded of late as the exemplars of devotion 
to the public faith. 

And in view of the action of the Secretary of the Treasury, what 
folly it is to vote large sums of money for the maintenance of a 
Civil Service Commission. The rule laid down by the Secretary 
of the Treasury does away entirely with all need for an expensive 
commission whose members have become so skilled in bowing the 
pregnant hinges of the knee that they stand as well with Demo- 
cratic as with Republican spoilsmen. If there be any need of 
rules for the governance of Government employees, why waste 
money for a commission when we can apply to the great banker 
at the Treasury Department and let him tell us what to do and 
what to leave undone. There is but one term to apply to the 
action of the Secretary of the Treasury in this regard. It is noth- 
ing but dress-coat anarchy, and all the more dangerous and con- 
temptible because of the false pretense of its author. If there had 
been a law authorizing the thing the Secretary has done, there 
would have been no necessity for his order in the premises. And 
if there be a law directly prohibiting the practice initiated by the 
Seci-etary of the Treasury, then he should be brought before the 
bar for his conduct. 

And there is another gentleman who has recently laid down his 
robes of office and stepped from the hidden to the actual service 
of the national bankers. It is well known that there are cer- 
tain well-detined statutes regulating the affairs of the national 
banks. It is also equally well known that upon some points the 
law leaves the Comptroller of the Currency no discretion. For 
instance, the law makes certain penalties for the taking of deposits 
after the bank is known to have been insolvent. The statute 
makes certain verj' strict rules regarding the loaning of the funds 
of the banks to persons acting as officials or on the boards of direct- 
ors. And yet the late Comptroller of the Currency published 
over his own signature a statement that he had for manj' months 
known of the violation of the statutes by the officials of a national 
bank, and had screened them because of the fact that an election 
was at hand, and becaiise he believed that by so doing he might 
save the consequences of a big bank failure at a critical time. 

Now. I do not care to discuss here whether or not the late Comp- 



troller was as great a financier as he believed himself to be. But 
I do want to call attention to the simj^le fact that in the case of 
that Philadelphia bank he annulled a law of Congress and pro- 
tected criminals in the violation of its clear provisions. It is 
not -d matter for me to consider here whether or not Mr. Eckels, 
during his term of office, was able to save one or many banks by- 
exercising a discretion denied to him by the statute. All that 
needs be attended to now is the simple and uncontradicted fact 
that he violated the law himself and connived at its violation by 
others, and of both these statements we have his own boastful 
confession. And we are forced in this case to a similar conclu- 
sion as in the case of the anarchistic Secretary of the Treasury. 
If Mr. Eckels is to be allowed thus to be a law unto himself, why 
should we waste time in seeking to frame laws amending our finan- 
cial system? 

We have still a Comptroller of the Currency. He has been 
anointed, as was Mr. Eckels, by an appointment to office. He has 
his course to run, and he will probably hold office during some 
exciting campaigns in which the friends of "sound money" will 
have to stand together. I want, therefore, to call attention to the 
fact that in the past the laws have been violated by the Comp- 
troller of the Currency and that gentleman has gone to his haven 
in the bank parlor of his masters, reaping thereby the regulation 
reward of the unjust steward. If it was right to send Mr. Fish, 
of the late firm of Grant & Ward, to Sing Sing prison because of 
an improper use of the funds of the Marine Bank, then it was 
criminal for Mr. Singerly to do the same, and it was a piece of 
gross malfeasance for Mr. Eckels to screen him in the act. 

But though all these things be made as clear as the noonday sun, 
there will be no action taken by the law officers of this Adminis- 
tration, who will carefully husband their powers until they can 
find some poor wretch who has dared to refuse to work for a rail- 
road wrecker at starvation wages, and then every arm of the law 
will be outstretched for his punishment. And we shall continue 
to read the Declaration of Independence and glory over a flag that 
has been defended by bankers against the assaults of illy clothed 
anarchists. 

There are a good many examples in history where republics 
have gone down on account of the spoils system. No more strik- 
ing example, perhaps, than that of the French Republic that grew 
out of the French Revolution. When Napoleon took charge of the 
army in Italy, starved, half-clothed, and poorly armed — when they 
had crossed the Alps and looked down on the valley of Italy, he 
said to them: 

In that valley lies everything' that you need— wealth, fame, honor. It is 
yonrs for the taking, and on your return from this expedition every one of 
you shall have wherewithal to purchase 6 acres of land. 

The Republic had rejected all attacks of royalty, and held out 
its hand to the xaeople. It had extended the knowledge of the 
rights of man, even as far as Russia, and made.despots tremble in 
their own palaces. Under the watchword of equality and fra- 
ternity, they had brought hope to the dethroned humanity the 
world over. But as soon as these people learned, as they did later 
on when Napoleon invaded their country, that they were coming 
not to establish a freer and better government, but to plunder and 
rob them of the accumulations of their labor, then the reaction 
set in agaiaist the revolution until finally it culminated in the 
overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo. 

2926 



9 

We might perhaps draw a parallel with the history of the Re- 
publican party coming into power under Lincoln, with a grand 
motto of human rights inscribed upon its banner. It made great 
progress in lifting this Republic to a higher plane of civilization 
by the destruction of chattel slavery. But in a few years it fell a 
prey to huckstering, trafficking politicians who were willing for 
the sake of office to barter away the rights of the people. As far 
back as Grant's second Administration we had the whisky-trust 
scandal. Garfield fell a victim to the bullet fired by a "pie-hunt- 
ing " office seeker. Under Harrison the McKinley bill was framed 
and formulated in a committee room whose doors were always 
open to the manufacturing interests. Blanks were left lying on 
the table accessible to those robbers to make out their own sched- 
ules, so that the Republican party would have an excuse for '"fry- 
ing the fat" out of them for campaign purposes. 

In the last campaign we saw that the unanimous support of the 
banking interests of the country went solidly to the Republican 
party because they had assurances that they should dictate the 
financial policy of the Government, and they are now clamoring 
through their agent, Mr. Gage, for the fulfillment of the contract. 

We saw the railroad corporations of the country carrying a 
million and a half or two million of political "rooters " to Canton, 
in many cases free of charge. Of course it was understood that 
the railroad interests would be protected should McKinley be 
landed in the White House. And so now the Republican party, 
in order to fulfill its promises to this horde of office seekers, is 
seeking to wipe out of existence the last barrier erected between 
them and the Treasury of the United States. 

After having repudiated every other plank in their platform (ex- 
cept that on the tariif ) tliej^ are now trying to wipe out that on 
the civil-service reform, and this is the party that after having 
violated every pledge it has made to the people is now crying out 
for an honest dollar. 

I am not of those, however, that believe that civil service (no 
matter how rigid) will prevent corruption in politics or in the 
Government service, or check or limit the mad rush of those 
struggling to hold a position under the Government. 

I believe there is something underlying all this— something that 
the politicians have not discovered; and if one stops to reason 
upon the matter, he will readily conclude that it must be caused 
by the fact that men are denied opportunities to employ them- 
selves—denied opportunities to engage in legitimate employment, 
and that those opportunities are narrowing every year, and the 
number of those that are struggling for places and jobs con- 
stantly on the increase: and so it must be until we have a race of 
statesmen who have the wisdom and ability to find out the under- 
lying cause of this evil and apply the remedy by so framing our 
Government and its laws as to destroy the monopoly of land and 
other public utilities; and when you have abolished these evils, 
men will not struggle with one another and hound from morn to 
night their representatives in Congress and Senate and in theDe- 
partments for the privilege of eking out a narrow and precarious 
and miserable existence in Government employ. 

I am a believer, of course, in civil-service reform. I would 
carry it even further than its application to Federal offices. I 
believe it ought to be carried into the different States of the 
Union: that the merit system ought to be put in practice in the 
States as well as the nation. I believe that out of this spoils sys- 
2926 



10 

tem has come the political boss. I believe the country would 
have been spared the late disgraceful scenes at Columbus, Ohio, 
if they had had the merit system in that State. 

In every State of this Union we are producing the political bosses 
who get control of the party machinery and are enabled thereby 
to deal out to the party followers the patronage of the State and 
pay their political debts out of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth. 
These are the things that have come to threaten and are threaten- 
ing the destruction of a republican form of government on this 
continent, and unless the remedy is applied, and that speedily, we 
will be face to face with conditions that will border closely on the 
anarchy that reigned in the early days of the French Revolution. 

Of course we do not expect anything along this line to come 
from the Republican party. I am one of those who believe that 
its days of iTsef ulness have passed, that it has gone over and is to- 
day wholly in the control of the selfish interests of the country, 
the great corporations, those who wish to control its lawmaking 
power so as to rob the people. It is not the party of Lincoln, 
Chase, G-rant, and Garfield any longer. They are but poor imi- 
tators of those great men who direct its course to-day. 

Largely they are soulless corporations, hypocrites, who but mas- 
querade in the grave clothes of their illustrious predecessors. A 
new force politically must be called into being, must get control, 
and apply these remedies, if the Republic is to be saved. 
SQ2Q 



The Cuban Question. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. JEERY SIMPSON, 

OF KANSAS, 

In the House of Eepeesentatiyes, 

Thursday, January 20, 1S9S. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and 
having under consideration the bill (H. R. fi4'19) making appropriations for 
the diplomatic and consular service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899— 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas said: 

Mr. Chairman: For the second time in this Congress I am iinder 
great obligations to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hitt] for 
graating me time when I was tmable to get it from the other side 
of the House; and I want to extend to him my sincere thanks for 
his courtesy. 

Mr. Chairman, I am not lying awake at night over the condi- 
tion of Cuba. I have been fortunately situated, not alone in tliis 
Congress but during every term that I have served, in occupying 
a position somewhat between the two great political parties of the 
country. I have watched the political play of those two parties 
on this question, and I notice that when the Cleveland Demo- 
crats—I make this distinction in speaking of the Democratic 
party— when the Cleveland Democrats were in power and had the 
opportunity to recognize the belligerency of Cuba, they hesitated 
to do so. 

Why? Simply because Mr. Cleveland and his Administration 
and his Cabinet were the agents, as I believe, to a certain extent 
of the bond-liolding interests of the country, and the §400,000,000 
of bonds that Spain has issued to carry on the Cuban war were 
the one great factor, or a great factor at least, in this contest 
about Cuba. It was my opinion then, and is now. that the Re- 
publican party will follow in the same line of action. In fact, 
they have inherited the policy that has come down to them from 
the Democrats when they were in power. 

Mr. DINSMORE. Will the gentleman from Kansas allow me 
a suggestion? 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Yes. sir. 

Mr. DINSMORE. The gentleman started oiTt by expressing 
his obligations to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hitt] for the 
privilege of speaking when he could not get an opportunity from 
this side. I merely want to remind my friend that I went to him 
voluntarily and proposed to try and arrange that he should have 
some time', but he said he hoped to get it from the other side. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. AVell, I will say that the gentleman 
from Mississippi [Mr. Williams], a member of the committee, 
2926 11 



12 

offered me time yesterday, but I was not ready to occupy it and 
he gave it to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cummings]. 
To-day, when I wanted it, I was of course unable to get it from 
that side; and the gentleman from Illinois very kindly gave me 
time from the other side, for which I am, as I said, under great 
obligations to him. 

I was about to say, Mr. Chairman, that in my opinion the bond- 
holding interest is to-day one of the great factors in this con- 
test over Cuba. That bond-holding interest controls the action 
and policy of this Government as much as it did when Mr. Cleve- 
land was in the White House; and no action will be taken on this 
subject until that bond-holding interest is guaranteed that what- 
ever form of government may be set up in Cuba, the payment of 
those $400,000,000 of bonds will be secured. 

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] said at the extraor- 
dinary session, when this question was up, that in good time the 
Republican party would give the watchword, and the party would 
march in step and time to that keynote when it was given. Now, 
I want to make the prediction thab that keynote will never be 
sounded, and the word will never be given until the bond-holding 
interest of the country and of the world gives its consent, and 
that consent will never be given until the payment of the bonds 
is guaranteed, because the revenues of Cuba are what the bond- 
holders must depend on for payment, if they look to Spain. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, I am more concerned about the condition 
and prosperity of our own people than I am about the people of 
Cuba, as much as I sympathize with them in their troubles. We 
ought to pass laws here which are for the good of our own country- 
men. We have been endeavoring to pass a law restricting immi- 
gration. We go so far as to put in an educational qualification 
for foreign immigrants, and not to admit to our shore as a resi- 
dent a person who can not read or write. 

Now, if we should recognize the belligerency of Cuba, and 
should become involved in a war with Spain, we would not only 
have the expense and the horrors of a war, but at the same time 
we would admit to citizenship and to naturalization the inhab- 
itants of Cuba, and thereby gain a large number of very undesir- 
able citizens as a part of our population. As I said before, how- 
ever, I am more concerned about tlie condition of my own country, 
and that condition should attract our attention. 

You say that people are starving in Cuba; that they are suffer- 
ing on account of privations and want and the condition of war 
that prevails. But if people are starving in Cuba, they are starv- 
ing and suffering in this country also. Our own people demand 
legislation to relieve them from the conditions which surround 
them. 

I know that when the Republican party came into power they 
proposed to cure all the evils under which we suffered; and the 
very first thing they did was to present a bill here and have it 
passed, one of the important results of which bill we were as- 
sured was to raise revenues "and to promote the industries of 
the country." Has it accomplished either? I contend that it has 
done neither the one nor the other. The revenvies of the Gov- 
ernment to-day are less, every month, than the expenditures. 
They are nearly $10,000,000 below the expendituires for the last 
month. 

Every day of the year there is an average of a quarter of a mil- 
lion of dollars less going into theTreasury than is being paid out. 
3926 



13 

As a "revenue getter'" this bill is the most monumental failure 
which has been constructed in modern times. The amount of 
the indebtedness is steadily increasing, while the revenues are 
steadily diminishing. 

Now, let us see for a moment about the effect of the bill in pro- 
moting the industries of the country. I quote from the Washing- 
ton Evening Star of January 17 an article which I commend to 
the members of this body, and, in passing, I will say this is a Re- 
publican paper, always has been since I have known anything of 
it, and the most radical and ultra of its kind. Here is the article: 

Mill. Hands Strike— Operatives in New England Cotton Factories 
Resist Reduction -Complete Tie-up at New Bedeoru— Trouble 
Spreads to Biddeford and Lewiston (Me.) Mills— Fifteen Thou- 
sand Out. 

New Bedford, Mass., January n. 
A shiit down the most complete in the history of the cotton mills of New 
Bedford began this morning. Not a spindle was turning nor a loom in mo- 
tion in the factories of the cloth corporations an hour after the usual time of 
beginning work. 

Between forty and fifty operatives went into Bristol mill and twenty-fiv© 
or thirty into the Whitman, but aside from these no mill made any show of 
running, and these two soon shut down. Nine corporations operating 
eighteen mills, in which upward of 9,W() hands are employed, are involved in 
the strike. The cut down is uniform all over the city— 10 per cent. The total 
pay roll ©f these corporations is estimated at $70,000 weekly. 

THE strike at BIDDEFORD, ME. 

Biddeford, Me., January 17. 

Every department of the Pepperell and Laconia mills, in this city, and all 
the departments of the York mills in Saco, with the exception of the carding 
and mule spinning rooms, shut down to-day as a result of the decision of the 
operatives to resist a 10 per cent reduction in wages, which was to go into 
effect to-day. 

The Dressers' Union, who are the leaders in the strike movement, had a 
meeting at 6.30 o'clock for the purpose of keeping the members away from 
the mill gates, and although most of the other operatives went into their 
rooms as usual, they came out again almost immediately, the gates, which 
are usually locked after 7 o'clock, being opened to allowthem to leave the 
mills. At 8 o'clock every department of the Pepperell and Laconia mills was 
.shut down, and 3,.50O operatives and 300,000 spindles were idle. 

At the York mills, in Saco, the weavers followed the example of the opera- 
tives on the Biddeford side of the river and remained out, and were followed 
by the slashers and ring spinners. It was then expected that others would 
come out and that the York mills would also be compelled to close. The cut 
at these mills is said to average 13 per cent. There are 1,500 operatives and 
51,3i 11 spindles. The management of the mills refuse to say what their policy 
will be regarding the action of the operatives. 

ANDROSCOGGIN MILL SHUT DOWN. 

Lewiston, Me., January 17. 
The operatives of all the mills here except those of the Androscoggin went 
to work as usual to-day under a reduction in wages of from 10 to 11 per cent. 
At the Androseroggiu mill only 7 out of 400 weavers went to work. The re- 
duction went into effect at the mills of the Continent and Androscoggin. Hill, 
Barber, and Bates corporations and at the Lewiston bleachery and dye 
works. The total weekly pay roll of these companies has been $13,000, about 
5,750 operatives are employed, and the number of spindles aggregates 379,000. 

And this "Lewiston " that is referred to here is the home of the 
framer of this bill. Here is the condition of affairs in his own 
county, in his own district, and his own town, and this is the 
result of a bill which promotes the industries of the American 
people. 

The article goes on and refers to other points, as follows: 

STRIKE EXPECTED AT WOONSOCKET. 

WOONSOCKET, R. I., January 17. 
The 3,300 people employed in the Social, Globe, andNourse mills of the 
Social Manufacturing Comijany and the Clinton mill, in this city, went to 
work at reductions of wages averaging, it is stated at the offices ot the mills, 
2936 X 



. 14 

about 10 per cent. The cut has been accepted without any concerted move- 
ment toward a strike, but there are murmurings and protijsts in a number of 
instances, and fears are felt that trouble may yet arise. 

CUT ACCEPTED AT WORCESTER. 

Worcester, Mass., January 17, 1898. 

A reduction in wages of about 10 per cent went into effect to-day at the 
Linwood Cotton Mills and Whitinsville Cotton Mills in Northbridge, the 
Uxbridge Cotton Mills at North Uxbridge, and the Saundersville Cotton 
Mills at Saundersville, Grafton. 

All are owned by "Whitin Bros., of Whitinsville. About 63,000 spindles 
are running, and 1,000 hands employed. The Fisherville Manufacturing 
Company also cut wages about 10 per cent, where about 4.50 hands are at work. 

The operatives at all of these mills have quietly submitted to the cut down, 
and went to work as usual to-day. The mills are among the best in the 
Blackstone Valley and make fine and fancy goods. The weavers have been 
making from $8 to $13 per week, with an average of $9. Under the new 
schedule the average will be about $8 per week. 

Now, if this bill is to promote the industries of the country — if 
it was ever going to accomplish that end — it seems to me that it 
has had a sufficient time to develoj) ef&cacy in that direction. It 
ought to have done so certainly in the New England States, if no- 
where else. That it has not done so is evident. Here is another 
little article to which I ask your attention: 

25,000 IDLE bricklayers AND MASONS. 

Peoria, III., January 16, 1898. 
The convention of the Bricklayers and Masons' International Union is 
getting down to business, now that the committees are completing their work. 
The total membership is reported at 56.396, of whom but 31,630 are employed. 
For beneficial purposes S3S0,.515 had been expended, and there is $83,376 in the 
treastiry. The establishment of a national home for indigent members is 
favored. 

This shows that 50 per cent of the bricklayers of the country 
are out of work. 

But that is not all. I hold in my hand a copy of a paper pub- 
lished in my own State, which quotes an article from the Spring- 
field Republican which is worthy of consideration. I commend 
it to our friends who claimed so much prosperity for this new law: 

A New Haven shopgirl describes "prosperity" in the Springfield (Mass.) 
Republican as follows: "Within three years my weekly wages in a dry- 
goods store have been cut from S8 to 33, and my case is one of many. The 
wages paid to female help in the stores of this city have fallen steadily since 
this year opened, until at last they are so small they will not buy sufficient 
food." This girl has also to support her mother, pay rent, feed and clothe 
two persons on $3 a week. She inquires: " If it is a fact that prosperity is re- 
turning, why are wages steadily reduced? " And finally she asks: "On this 
Thanksgiving eve I plead for a rescue from this misery. With all the money 
spent in this city isn't there profit enough to at least keep body and soul 
together?" 

Now, while gentlemen are pleading so eloquently on this floor 
for the suffering citizens of Cuba, and telling us of the distress 
prevailing there, is there no word to be spoken in defense of our 
own citizens who are also suffering? I think there is ample op- 
portunity to display American statesmanship in regard to the en- 
actment of laws which will give our OY/n people a better Govern- 
ment and better condition, instead of devoting so much time to 
the Island of Cuba. 

I can readily understand why parties while out of power are 
aggressive and all of that, and would take advantage of such 
things and put into their platforms planks such as the Republicans 
have put into theirs, and on which they are standing t0:day. The 
gentlemen who form the platform are always adroit enough to 
frame them so as to catch the ' ' suckers " on election day. [Laugh- 
ter.] But they always leave a hole big enough— in this case it 
2936 



15 

did not require a very big one— for the Republican party to get 
out of the obligations it had promised to the people. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, I am one of those ^A^ho believe that a party 
should adhere to its obligations and promises made to the people, 
and upon which it was elected. I do not think a party ought to 
go before the country on a platform calculated to deceive the peo- 
ple for the purpose of catching voters, and therefore I think the 
Republican party should be held to a strict account and responsi- 
bility, requiring it to fulfill all of the obligations made in the cam- 
paign through its platform. 

Therefore, if an opportunity was offered, I for one would vote 
with the Republicans to help them fulfill their pledges in regard 
to Cuba. But they are not going to give us an opportunity. I 
pointed out in the extra session that one man directed the course 
of this House. We are no longer a legislative and representative 
body. No measure can pass this House without the consent of 
the Speaker. As I said before, he is the whole thing. He is Con- 
gress, and Representatives of great districts of the United States 
come here and find themselves powerless to make any motion or 
present or call up any bill looking to the interest and welfare of 
their section of the country without the consent of the Speaker. 

The CHAIRMAN. The time ot the gentleman has expired. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Mr. Chairman, I ask permission to 
have printed in the Record a clipping from the Washington Star, 
containing a statement of the condition of labor in these different 
States. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Kansas asks unani- 
mous consent to print certain clippings in the Record. Is there 
objection? 

There was no objection. 

Mr. LEWIS of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I ask the gentle- 
man from Arkansas [Mr. Dinsmore] if he can not give the gen- 
tleman from Kansas five minutes more? I should be very grateful 
for that favor myself. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I can not give it without depriving some 
gentleman to whom it is promised. I ask unanimous consentthat 
the time be extended, however, in order that the gentleman from 
Kansas may have five minutes. I ask xinanimous consent that the 
vote may be taken at five minutes after 4 instead of at 4 o'clock. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. Mr. Chairman, in view of the fact 
that the chairman of the committee wants to get his bill through 
to-night, I will not further encroach upon the courtesy or good 
nature of the House. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I will yield five minutes more to the gentle- 
man from Kansas if he wishes to proceed. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I do not care to proceed now. I am 
obliged to the gentleman from Arkansas for his courtesy. 
<•' "■ *•?:-*** 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I am not surprised that the gentle- 
man from Maine, having got hold of a hotwire, shoiild have made 
the labored explanation as to why the bill that was intended to 
promote industry has n*ot promoted industry. I have only three 
minutes and I have not time to answer all his argument. He 
dwelt long upon the argument that the reduction of wages in 
Maine was due to the fact that wages were cheaper down in the 
Southern States. 

Now, the gentleman ought to know, and undoubtedly does know. 



LS?^ °^ COWGRES 




16 



015 819 600 1 



that cheap labor is the dearest thing in the world. James G. 
Blaine, of sacred Republican memory, proved that fact some years 
ago in his report upon the manufactories of Europe, where he says 
that goods produced by cheap labor are produced at great cost. 
The true explanation why the New England cotton manufacturers 
can not manufacture as cheap as those in the South is this: In 
New England there is a large population which has become more 
extensive, and the landlord can and does extract from the laborer 
a larger proportion of his wages in payment for rent, and the New 
England manufacturers are unable to pay the wages to compete 
with the Southern States, where land is more plentiful and rents 
are lower. 

Now, in Denver, Colo. — in a State where they pay the highest 
wages of any State in the Union — the Overlajid Cotton Mill to-day 
is sending its goods to Massachusetts and competing with the 
goods of all parts of the United States. So the only way in which 
the gentleman from Maine can fortify his position is by the sug- 
gestion that we must have a protective tariff in favor of New 
England against the Southern States. That will carry the protec- 
tive-tariff policy out to its legitimate conclusion, each State pro- 
tecting itself against the others, each county protecting itself 
against other counties, and finally, following out the gentleman's 
line of policy, we shall have each township, I presume, protecting 
itself against the comiaetition of other townships. [Applause.] 

The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Kansas has 
expired. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I hope the gentleman will give me 
two minutes more. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I can not possibly do so. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I have a little extract I should like 
to read. 

Several Members. Put it in the Record. 

Mr. SIMPSON of Kansas. I ask leave to put this extract in the 
Record. 

■ZQZQ 



